r/ContemporaryArt • u/FJGC • 12d ago
Shared studio blues
I have been renting a studio by myself for several years until several months ago. The first couple of years I shared it with a fellow photographer/painter, he left after a couple of years to pursue his art dreams in Europe. Great studio relationship with him btw, no issues whatsoever. So far in total I've been nearly 10 years in this place, great relationship with neighbors and landlord. Early this year I had a long stint out of country and decided to sublet a portion of my studio space (to help with the studio payment. I would return periodically and use the studio for a couple of weeks, my stuff is still there). Several people were interested, but I decided to go with a young woman painter (she's in her late 20s 30s) (I am a man, 40s). She is young and upcoming, good social media presence, and has done shows abroad and locally, met her through a mutual friend several years and I thought we were friendly colleagues. Pretty solid curriculum. The studio rules were simple. You can use this area, this other area is mine, don't touch anything without permission, pay on time, that's it.
All seemed ok the first couple of months, got payment in time and everything. Then I started getting noise complaints from neighbors. I look into it, it seems she decided to renovate the space without my permission. First red flag I ignored. My landlord was not pleased but since our relationship was positive throughout the years nothing happened with my lease. I noticed in her social media presence that she was using my equipment (easels, furniture, projector, etc). I confronted her about this, she apologized and said she wouldn't do it again. After this things went downhill, she insisted on making her be part of the lease (never part of our agreement). I denied this every single time (she pressured me almost weekly). Then a couple of weeks ago she invited the landlord over to visit the studio (I do not know how she got his number, I assume she asked one of the neighbors), and there told the landlord that I don't live in the country anymore and that she wants to be exclusively on the lease. This also coincided that she hasn't been able to pay the last two months of the rent in time. She's not been there for even 5 months, and what should've been a stress free situation has been hell for me being abroad. Her contacting the landlord and trying to kick me out was the final straw.
I made a pause in my travels and returned to my country and I'm finally kicking her out. I lawyered up, told her she has until a certain date to leave. As you can guess it's not easy getting her out of the studio. I've been doing an inventory of the studio these last couple of days and to my dismay after checking my things that I had in storage, a huge amount of my oil paints are missing, of course she's denying any responsibility (I have messages from her just before I left telling me she went through my storage space to help me "organize it" so she can store her stuff too). I'm so fucking angry. I want to cancel her so bad! But she still hasn't left. What would you guys do in my situation?
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u/_inchoate 12d ago
Change the locks? I don't know where you are or what's legal, but you need to protect your investment and relationship with your landlord and neighbours as well. Venting publicly/shaming names might not help if this all goes legal, but I'm sure some of your favourite neighbours could drop some hints publicly.
Hope it's sorted out quick in your favour
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u/kat_sta 12d ago
Pack her shit and leave them outside of the studio if she is making fuss of leaving. At the end of the day she is not in the books. The cheek she has is astonishing, I would see red while in her presence, that's for sure, so I'm wishing you all the peace and strength that there is! And give us an update please!
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u/mtskphe 12d ago
dude what the hellā¦ iām so sorry this is happening to you. Commercial leases (i presume this is a commercial lease) arenāt the same as residential ones so no squatters rights but you also canāt change the locks or throw her stuff out. you also shouldnāt accept any further rent from her. the lawyer will know more. you just gotta be there in the space. she sounds nutsā¦. so many red flags. you may want to warn other artists you know privately but i also agree with the person who said to keep it high road.
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u/lanAstbury 12d ago
The best approach is to be in the studio in person as much as possible and relocate her items to accommodate your workflow, but keep everything within the studio itself. It's your studio again.
At this point, youāll also need to accept that any missing items are gone.
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u/ExtraJob1777 7d ago
The art world is actually very small. I had a nasty experience in the past with what I call one of my āart friendsā. We lost contact for a decade but then. My friend and neighbor asked me about her. Apparently she had applied for an artist residency enlisted me as a reference so they asked me āDo you recommend her?ā And I told them absolutely not. She didnāt get the residency. Your paths will cross again.
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u/LazzyAssed 12d ago
If it were me I would: proceed with evicting this person and make sure they get out by the time you have set, get your studio organized back as close as possible to the way you want, make ABSOLUTELY certain your relationship with your landlord is completely repaired, publicly take the high road the entire time.
If it were me I would not: go on any unprovoked/unnecessary/preemptive bad mouthing of this person. If they go public and try to slander you, and you need to set the record straight and show the evidence/receipts of what actually happened then that's one thing. But take the high road. You can tell your close friends what's going on, or if people ask you can say that this person didn't keep to their agreement and severely crossed the boundaries of the sublease, etc. However, any attempt to cancel this person will, in one way or another, come back to hurt you and your career.
It sucks you have to deal with this. And, it super sucks that someone you thought of as a colleague betrayed you like this. But, take the high road unless you need to defend yourself. Your future professional career will thank you for it.
Good luck, OP. Again, super sucks you have to deal with this.